History

South Ockendon is an ancient parish. It was a village before the Norman Conquest and had a priest in 1085. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Wocheduna, conjecturally named after a Saxon chief, Wocca, whose tribe lived on a hill. (The suffix "don" in Old English means a low hill in open country.) Until the late 1940s, the village centred on The Village Green, with its Norman Church closely adjoining "The Royal Oak", a 14th-century tavern with a 17th-century northern extension. North, South and West Roads all converge on The Green.